MONTHLY KEVTEW OF LITER AT I! 11 E. 1 $7 



insipid than the whole of the German emigrant's family for instance, or than 

 the character of Lucy Bligh, which in more competent hands might have been 

 brought up from the canvass in connection with her brother as a bright light 

 contrasting well with the more gloomy scenery of Colonel Dart's negro-tilled 

 plantation ? It is only fair, however, to make one exception, which we do 

 with pleasure, to this censure : the character of Aunt Cli, though by no means 

 a very prominent personage, is so naively and delicately touched off, uniting 

 an admirable blandness and benevolence of nature, with some of the charac- 

 teristic features of the national mind, that we are willing to hope that if 

 Mrs. Trollope can forget her own peculiar notions, or at least consent to bury 

 them for the nonce, and is inclined to look on human nature with a less jaun- 

 diced eye in future, she may attain a very high and honoured rank among her 

 literary countrywomen. 



Having made as we felt it our duty to make the above strictures on the 

 volumes before us, we may now safely put them in the reader's hands. He 

 will find much that is amusing in them; and he must be content to make 

 allowance for a large part being a broad caricature. 



Mammon, or Covetousness the Sin of the Christian Church. By the Rev. 

 J. Harris. London: Ward. 8vo. p. 311. 



IF we were called on to select anyone instance as indicative of an increased 

 general feeling in favour of religion in England, it would be this, that greater 

 encouragement than ever is now. given to the publication of really valuable 

 religious works, and to the republication of sterling works, at a price that 

 makes them generally accessible. We instance particularly the " Sacred 

 Classics" published by Hatchard, a work which by this time has doubtless 

 given substantial proof of its favourable reception to the proprietor and 

 learned editors, and the " Theological Library" published by Rivington, which 

 to its intrinsic value adds that of originality, some of the first churchmen 

 of our day having contributed the different volumes. When, however, public- 

 spirited individuals come forward and offer handsome rewards independently 

 of the ordinary profit gained by literary men for works written in defence of 

 religion, it becomes a reviewer's bounden duty to publish so munificent 

 an act, and at the same time to determine the merits of the composition or 

 compositions to which the prize has been adjudged. The first act of 

 munificence of this kind within the last few years was the legacy of the late 

 duke of Bridgewater, which among other valuable treatises brought to light 

 those of Dr. Chalmers and Mr. Whewell, which will live as long as the 

 national literature shall endure. More lately we have to record an offer 

 which considering the different ranks and estates of the donors is scarcely 

 less munificent, the offer of one hundred guineas by Dr. Conquest for the best 

 essay on " Selfishness" as the enemy of true religion to be adjudicated by 

 the Rev. Baptist Noel and Dr. Pye Smith. The work now before us is the 

 prize essay on the subject, one only of a hundred and forty-three sent in 

 for competition, 'from the reading of many of which the adjudicators rose 

 "with a high feeling of gratitude and admiration at the mass of sanctified 

 talent which had been brought before their view." When men of such high 

 public, and professional character consent in awarding'such a prize, and " are 

 conscientiously satisfied with the decision which they announce," it would 

 ill become us to affect to sit in judgment, or add one single word of praise. 



The object of the treatise is to show that the universe, is designed to display 

 and enjoy the love of God, since " God is love," that sin, which is neither 

 more nor less than selfishness, invaded the world, and so frustrated the 

 divine plan, and that the gospel was afterwards introduced as a system of 

 benevolence opposed to one of selfishness, as a plan for restoring to the 

 world its lost spirit of benevolence, that this selfishness was not only the 



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